If you’re a gym-goer, chances are that you’ve heard about the concept of ‘progressive overloading’. In a nutshell, it is a strength training principle where you make your workouts more challenging over time. But how exactly can you do that? And more importantly, what role can progressive overload play in your health and fitness journey?
Whether you’re just starting out or looking to level up, read as Jackson Anderson, a PT at Juniper, breaks down the basics of progressive overload and explains the many ways you can incorporate it into your training routine.
The principle of progressive overload
Progressive overload is a fundamental principle of strength training that involves gradually increasing the demands placed on the body during exercise over time to continually make adaptations and improvements in strength, muscle size or endurance.
Our muscles are incredibly efficient at adapting to the workloads we place on them, so when you perform the same exercises with the same weights and intensity over an extended period, your muscles eventually reach a plateau where they no longer experience significant growth or strength gains.
This is ultimately inevitable – but it is also where progressive overload comes into play.
By systematically and gradually increasing the demands on your muscles, whether through added weight, more reps or increased intensity, you force your body to adapt continually.
This process triggers physiological changes, such as increased muscle fibre recruitment, improved neural efficiency and enhanced muscle protein synthesis, which ultimately leads to greater strength and muscle development over time.
Implementing progressive overload effectively
There are several strategies you can employ to incorporate progressive overload into your training regimen effectively:
- Increase the weight: One of the most straightforward methods is to add more weight to your lifts gradually. As you become stronger, increase the load by small increments, ensuring you maintain proper form and technique.
- Tip: Aim for a 2.5-5% increase in incremental weight for upper body exercises and a 5-10% increase for lower body exercises every few weeks.
- Increase the volume: Increase the total number of reps or sets you perform for a given exercise. This can be achieved by adding more reps to each set or introducing additional sets to your workout. When thinking about volume, it’s also important to consider how many exercises you are completing for each body part. Play around with rep ranges to hit the sweet spot of lifting heavy but also include enough total volume.
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- Tip: If you’re currently doing 3 sets of 8 reps, try moving to 4 sets of 8 reps or 3 sets of 10 reps.
- Decrease rest periods: Reducing the rest time between sets can heighten the intensity of your workout, forcing your muscles to work harder and promoting endurance and strength gains.
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- Tip: Try reducing rest periods by 10-15 seconds. This works well for those who are short on time.
- Incorporate advanced training techniques: Implement techniques like drop sets, supersets, forced reps or eccentric overload to create additional muscle tension and stimulate growth.
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- Tip: Use advanced techniques sparingly, perhaps in the last set of a certain exercise, to avoid overtraining.
- Modify training frequency: Increase the number of training sessions you complete per week, allowing you to hit each major muscle group more frequently and promote faster recovery and adaptation.
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- Tip: If you’re training each muscle group once a week, try increasing it to twice a week with a balanced split routine.
Practical tips for sustainable progress
- Track your progress: Maintain a note or use a fitness app to record your weights, reps, sets and other relevant details of your workouts. This data will guide your progressive overload efforts and help you make informed decisions about when to increase the intensity. Remember that even by altering the slightest detail of your workout, you will be able to progressively overload.
- Tip: Review your training pattern weekly to identify any areas you can progress on and make necessary adjustments.
- Be patient and consistent: Progressive overload is a gradual process that requires patience and consistency. Small, incremental increases over time are more effective and sustainable than drastic changes that can lead to injury or burnout.
- Tip: Set realistic short-term goals to stay motivated and track your progress toward long-term objectives.
- Listen to your body: Pay close attention to how your body responds to the increased demands. You don’t need to progressively overload every exercise in each of your sessions. You may only end up progressing on one movement, which is still a success! If you’re feeling excessive soreness, fatigue or pain, take the time to recover before pushing forward in your next session.
- Tip: Incorporate active recovery days with light exercise or stretching to enhance recovery and ensure you are eating enough protein for your hard work to pay off.
- Incorporate deload weeks: Periodically reduce the intensity of your workouts to allow your body to recover and adapt fully. Deload weeks can prevent burnout and reduce the risk of overtraining.
- Tip: Plan a deload week every 6-8 weeks, focusing on lighter weights and lower intensity. This can help reset focus on your next training block.
Progressive overload is the driving force behind sustainable strength gains over time. By consistently challenging your muscles with increased demands, you create an environment for growth and adaptation.
Not only does this support your strength gains long term, but it also allows your training to continuously evolve and become more challenging. Incorporate progressive overload principles into your training routine, track your progress, and remain consistent over time.
